Plot
A koala named Buster Moon has one final chance to restore his theater to its former glory by producing the world's greatest singing competition.
Release Year: 2016
Rating: 7.3/10 (2,282 voted)
Critic's Score: 57/100
Director: Christophe Lourdelet
Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane
Storyline
Set in a world like ours but entirely inhabited by animals, Buster Moon a dapper koala who presides over a once-grand theater that has fallen on hard times. Buster is an eternal-some might even say delusional-optimist who loves his theater above all and will do anything to preserve it. Now faced with the crumbling of his life's ambition, he has one final chance to restore his fading jewel to its former glory by producing the world's greatest singing competition.
Cast: Matthew McConaughey -
Buster Moon
(voice)
Reese Witherspoon -
Rosita
(voice)
Seth MacFarlane -
Mike
(voice)
Scarlett Johansson -
Ash
(voice)
John C. Reilly -
Eddie
(voice)
Taron Egerton -
Johnny
(voice)
Tori Kelly -
Meena
(voice)
Jennifer Saunders -
Nana
(voice)
Jennifer Hudson -
Young Nana
(voice)
Garth Jennings -
Miss Crawly /
Additional Voices
(voice)
Peter Serafinowicz -
Big Daddy
(voice)
Nick Kroll -
Gunter
(voice)
Beck Bennett -
Lance
(voice)
Jay Pharoah -
Meena's Grandfather
(voice)
Nick Offerman -
Norman
(voice)
Trivia:
At 110 minutes long this is Illumination Entertainment's longest film. See more »
Quotes:
User Review
Author:
Rating: 7/10
After wading in the water in terms of quality for the better half of
this year, Illumination Entertainment finally gets the above-average
film they deserve with Sing. The sad part about a film like this -
which is basically an animated variety show of animals covering
yesterday and today's pop tunes - is it's more likely to fail than
succeed on the simple merit that its narrative prompts for things like
humor based on recognition, general unevenness, and lazy screen
writing. While all of those certainly come into play sooner or later,
you might just be surprised, as I was, how Sing's effervescent charm
sneaks up on you well into its second act and manifests its way into
becoming an enjoyable, character-centered experience.
The film revolves around the perky Buster Moon (voiced by Matthew
McConaughey), a Koala bear who owns the historic Moon Theatre and has
for the past twenty-five years. In the present day, however, the
theater is dilapidated, with crippled, worn infrastructure that can
barely stay intact. Buster hasn't put on a show in three years, but
with the help of his elderly, but well-meaning lizard assistant Ms.
Crawly (director Garth Jennings), they decide to host a singing
competition which will eventually pave the way for a variety show of
sorts for the entire neighborhood.
Originally intending the winner of the competition to get $1,000, a
typo by Ms. Crawly renders the cash prize $100,000, money that Buster
doesn't have but must fake like he does until the show is over. This
becomes harder to do when he sees exactly how troubled most of his
talent are, and how they're all singing to escape or better themselves.
There's a teenage gorilla named Johnny (Taron Egerton), who is trying
to forge a path for himself unlike his father's that doesn't involve
petty crime and gang activity, a mouse named Mike (Seth MacFarlane),
who is in total debt with no immediate relief, a young elephant named
Meena (Tori Kelly), who needs to overcome stage-fright in order to
pursue his dreams as a singer, a porcupine named Ash (Scarlett
Johansson), who gets accepted while the other half of her duo/boyfriend
Lance (Beck Bennett) does not, and a pig named Rosita (Reese
Witherspoon), who is caught in the middle of a struggling marriage with
her husband and twenty-five piglets as she tries to relive her years as
a performer.
A movie where animals sing once-popular radio hits feels like the "cat
video"-infested bowels of Youtube taken to the next level, so on that
note, much like their film The Secret Life of Pets, Illumination has
cracked the secret to getting people interested in their films on a
purely conceptual (no matter how basic) level. But after insulting us
with Minions and shortchanging us with Pets, the studio finally gets it
right with Sing by giving us what we subconsciously expected to see,
which was a bit of a story behind the characters. We'll come for the
cuteness, but we'd also like to be given a reason to stay and a reason
to connect to the film.
Sing features an amiable cast of characters with familiar voices -
McConaughey and MacFarlane are very good, for that matter - and infuses
their stories with enough interest to make them transcend the tropes
they could've fallen into it quite easily. For example, the stories of
Meena, Rosita, and Ash are actually kind of sad, and give way to the
wonderful idea of female empowerment based on breaking out of "your
place" or your comfort zone and fully becoming your own, confident
person. Common, absolutely, but screenwriter Jennings infuses a bit of
disillusionment into their stories to give them an emotional layer that
might even echo or resonate with parents, who thought they were taking
their kids to see another cute and cuddly kid movie. Maybe they might
even see something in the way the Johnny character feels, as he's
constantly pressured by his father to be tough and to be a part of his
gang rather than encouraging him to be his own person.
Sing has moments where its lazy screen writing does prevail, such as
the handful of montages we get that show a goofy pig dancing to Lady
Gaga's "Bad Romance" or kangaroos singing the Men Without Hats' "Safety
Dance." They're moments of brief amusement until you realize how
entirely vapid and distracting they really are. Thankfully, where
Jennings could've stopped writing, he decided to keep going, and the
result is a modestly successful animated film that at least makes an
admirable attempt to give us more than the internet and other movies of
the like already have.
Voiced by: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane,
Taron Egerton, Scarlett Johansson, Tori Kelly, Beck Bennett, and Garth
Jennings. Directed by: Garth Jennings.
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